Variances arise under standard costing as in entries 3 and 4b. That’s because the standard costs assigned to products on the basis of work done in the current period do not equal actual costs incurred in the current period. Recall that variances that result in higher income than expected are termed favorable while those that reduce income are unfavorable. From an accounting standpoint favorable cost variances are credit entries while unfavorable ones are debits. In the preceding example both direct materials for both variances in Exhibit 17-13.
Variances can be analyzed in little or great detail for planning and control purposes as described in Chapters 7 and 8. Sometimes direct materials price variances are isolated at the time direct materials are purchased and only efficiency variances are computed in entry 3. Exhibit 17-14 shows how the costs flow through the general-ledger accounts under standard costing.